Manchester City has released their new home kit for the 2020-21 season, and it’s something a little bit different that taps into the club and the city’s heritage.
While still redolent in traditional sky blue, the shirt features a unique cracked motif inspired by the tile mosaics that are dotted around Manchester’s creative Northern Quarter.
City themselves also have a long association with mosaics that stretches back almost 100 years, to when the famous Maine Road half-crescent artwork was first installed above the gates at their former home.
Almost a century on, the tessellating tile patterns — modelled by stars including Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Caroline Weir — remain integral to the club’s heritage.
The new shirt is directly inspired by the artwork of Mark Kennedy, the man whose colourful mosaics decorate the Northern Quarter.
Kennedy, who also created the portraits of City legends such as Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, Joe Hart and Joe Mercer that speckle his beloved club’s training complex, spoke of his pride at seeing his art being championed so prominently.
“I began creating Manchester icons using ceramic plates and tiles, integrating my own artistic style,” he said. “My family and I have always been huge City fans, so I created artwork of the players too.
“Over time I was commissioned to create artwork for the club and the city of Manchester, so I feel very privileged to see PUMA use my art as inspiration for the new City Home jersey.”
City is set to wear their brand new kit for the first time when they face Arsenal at Wembley in the FA Cup semifinals on Sunday, July 18 (stream LIVE on ESPN+ at 2:45 pm ET in the U.S.).
SOURCE: ESPN
